COPD & Emphysema Support Group
COPD is a progressive disease characterized by airflow obstruction or limitation. Emphysema is characterized by loss of elasticity of the lung tissue, destruction of structures supporting the alveoli and of capillaries feeding the alveoli. Both have symptoms that include shortness of breath, among other respiratory troubles. If you are a COPD or Emphysema sufferer, join...
Just wanted to share this, it was a bit of a jaw dropper for me considering I only smoked for 20 years and maybe 10 of those years as a dedicated smoker. Though I don't yet have copd I did start having some lung issues last year and I kick myself daily for my smoking habit.
So..... I was just fiddling about on the internet last night like I often do. Going from point of interest to point of interest, surfing they call it, and just passing some time before bed. One of the things I came across was the worlds oldest (verifiable) person who ever lived, a woman named Jeanne Calment who lived to 122 years and 164 days. The odd thing is that she was a smoker for over 100 of those years. Lol....... She started smoking at 19 and smoked right up to the end, though the last few years of her life she limited herself to 2 cigarettes a day.... Well, that's an oddity isn't it?? Ummmmm Nope. The web page it took me to, at Wikipedea which lists the verified 10 oldest men and 10 oldest women and has bio's on them led me to a bit of research and it turns out most of them were smokers. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not throwing my hat in the ring in approval of smoking because I'm surely not but it floored me to find this out. Odder still was that more than one claimed the secret to longevity was staying away from alcohol not ciggies. Other strangenesses that don't fit in with the ideas we have of what is and isn't healthy were the 120+ year old Japanese man who ate a bowl of pork fat every day. Others with the penchant for sweets and fatty foods which they did not deny themselves. A woman in Brazil who may actually be the very oldest woman ever at 129 years old, Maria do Carmo Jeronimo born in 1871 died 1990 was actually born a slave. Yet since slaves were not given birth certificates her claim is rejected by the Guiness book. The record of her birth and her baptism 6 days later is recorded in separate records at the church for her birth town. In 1990 scars from the whip were still visable on her back. She was freed at the age of 17 when Brazil, the last country to do so finally repealed slavery. The family she worked as a maid for, for several generations state that she was a chain smoker and was rarely seen without a cigarette dangling from her mouth.
Just as a point of interest, Jeanne Calment met Vincent Van Gogh as a young girl. He used to patronise her fathers store to buy paints. She described him as dirty, poorly dressed and strange are the words I believe she used.
Anyways, what does this say to me? And maybe should to you to? If you are feeling guilty about bringing this disease of COPD on to yourself, maybe you just ought to let that go. If most of the oldest recorded humans had 100 year smoking habits it's more likely that this thing is genetically predisposed. You might just have got it from living in a smoggy ole polluted city even if you hadn't ever smoked.
So..... I was just fiddling about on the internet last night like I often do. Going from point of interest to point of interest, surfing they call it, and just passing some time before bed. One of the things I came across was the worlds oldest (verifiable) person who ever lived, a woman named Jeanne Calment who lived to 122 years and 164 days. The odd thing is that she was a smoker for over 100 of those years. Lol....... She started smoking at 19 and smoked right up to the end, though the last few years of her life she limited herself to 2 cigarettes a day.... Well, that's an oddity isn't it?? Ummmmm Nope. The web page it took me to, at Wikipedea which lists the verified 10 oldest men and 10 oldest women and has bio's on them led me to a bit of research and it turns out most of them were smokers. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not throwing my hat in the ring in approval of smoking because I'm surely not but it floored me to find this out. Odder still was that more than one claimed the secret to longevity was staying away from alcohol not ciggies. Other strangenesses that don't fit in with the ideas we have of what is and isn't healthy were the 120+ year old Japanese man who ate a bowl of pork fat every day. Others with the penchant for sweets and fatty foods which they did not deny themselves. A woman in Brazil who may actually be the very oldest woman ever at 129 years old, Maria do Carmo Jeronimo born in 1871 died 1990 was actually born a slave. Yet since slaves were not given birth certificates her claim is rejected by the Guiness book. The record of her birth and her baptism 6 days later is recorded in separate records at the church for her birth town. In 1990 scars from the whip were still visable on her back. She was freed at the age of 17 when Brazil, the last country to do so finally repealed slavery. The family she worked as a maid for, for several generations state that she was a chain smoker and was rarely seen without a cigarette dangling from her mouth.
Just as a point of interest, Jeanne Calment met Vincent Van Gogh as a young girl. He used to patronise her fathers store to buy paints. She described him as dirty, poorly dressed and strange are the words I believe she used.
Anyways, what does this say to me? And maybe should to you to? If you are feeling guilty about bringing this disease of COPD on to yourself, maybe you just ought to let that go. If most of the oldest recorded humans had 100 year smoking habits it's more likely that this thing is genetically predisposed. You might just have got it from living in a smoggy ole polluted city even if you hadn't ever smoked.
BJ
AND a belated Happy Birthday to you.
Your attitude rocks..and don't waste the donuts!
I`m not sure about anywhere else BUT I remember years ago here in the UK it was not unusual to go into the doctors office and find him smoking, large full ashtray on his desk!! Wow how times change. Keep sharing Zig Zag x x x
Youall tend to have so many of the wrong words and spellings for the same thing, I didnt notice.
(Smile)
Could be that these oldersters were fortunate enough to have smoked either foreign cigs. or smoked and died before this gov. allowed unnecessary poisons to be added to our tobacco products. Just a thought.
@ Kitties....found this in my bookmarks from a discussion on here a while back.
Big Tobacco admitted it.
However, the oldsters that Zig mentioned, just had good genes I'm pretty sure. Given the ratio of smokers to COPD and related patients the genetic component is undeniable, and IS an area where much research is being done. Beyond the well known Alpha1.
I knew one person on an oxygen tank as a kid who had emphysema. I've heard of one more. So, that said, the tobacco alone can do it's nasty job w/o the additives. Johnny Carson is a quick one who comes to mind who had emphy. I believe one of the Reynolds Brothers ( Tobacco co)died from it as well
And I really have my suspicions about Jeanne Calment who lived to 122 years and 164 days who limited herself to two cigarettes a day for over 100 years.
She either wasn't smoking tobacco as we know it today, she had very strong will or she was smoking something that has numerous names, the one coming to me is "doobie".
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if these people didn't have less toxic tobacco than we did. You'd have to expect that more natural the product the more benign it would be. You start adding chemicals to dry, and to keep it from getting too dry and to have a longer shelf life and you got to be getting worse in terms of toxicity.
A funny thing, from lil ellie's post. Just 7 or 8 months ago when I started having some lung trouble and my x ray was clear the emerg doc told me if I quit smoking my lungs would eventually return to normal. So yeah, they still say that and I'm still waiting. Honestly it's not the copd that gives me the willies, it's the fact that I worked with asbestos for 25 years as an insulator. Removing the asbestos and re fitting with modern insulation. I had a couple of doozie exposures. I was wearing a battery operated air filter system with a full face mask and the filteration system behind my back on a belt. I was sitting on some scaffolding and didn't realise the filter was crosss threaded and it popped off while I was sitting on a pile of asbestos and didn't realise until I saw all this crap flying around inside my face mask. Dry asbestos being pumped right into my face. Ever time I feel a twinge in my ribs I worry about that one.
Consider that it wasnt that long ago women did not smoke outside in public. It was equally bad manners for anyone to walk and smoke. Men stamped out their cigarette before being introduced to someone. Cigarettes were far shorter and people did not smoke them down to the nub. (Filters encourage that change.) Cigarettes were enjoyed over after-dinner coffee or just before bed. Rural people mostly, but a large majority rolled their own (stronger, but definitely shorter). Tobacco use was high but a far greater proportion was used in pipes, cigars, snuff, and chew.
And so on.
However, as to her sanity it was easier to keep company with the dog.